


Betrayals and Reunions

by JadeEnder



Series: Altered [9]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), and some hints to the future, some startling discovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 14:35:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20695160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeEnder/pseuds/JadeEnder
Summary: Curse awoke into life again as everyone did, screaming. When he returned to form in the dark world it was as painful as it had been the first time, his entire form being created out of the energy he’d gathered over the few months he’d been gone. A ripple went through the air around him, it wasn’t as if a dark was born every day, or in this case reborn.





	Betrayals and Reunions

Curse awoke into life again as everyone did, screaming. When he returned to form in the dark world it was as painful as it had been the first time, his entire form being created out of the energy he’d gathered over the few months he’d been gone. A ripple went through the air around him, it wasn’t as if a dark was born every day, or in this case reborn. 

Every monster, fiend, and other dark would be able to feel it. That put him in immediate danger, he was still weak having used all of his energy to come back so he needed to get moving. As quickly as he could Curse got up cringing at his total exhaustion. 

Moving as silently as possible he crossed the open plain he’d been dumped in heading for the town nearby, there he’d be able to siphon enough energy to make it back to the light world. In the distance the caw of birds mingled with growls of beasts as they pursued him.

Breaking into as close to a sprint as his exhausted body would allow Curse made it into the village, collapsing as he did. The shadowlings of the town were gone, none walked around outside or hid inside the few residences, that he could feel. Before he had time to really remember anything the cawing got louder and louder until he knew he only had one chance to get out of there.

Picking himself up from the ground Curse threw himself in the shadows crudely pulling all his energy together and sliding into them as he passed through the barrier separating dimensions and fell into the light world. 

“Rabbit!” Was the last thing he heard as darkness once again consumed him. 

____________________________________________________________________________

If there’s one thing that could be said about Sky’s Hyrule, it was beautiful. It was such a role reversal for the links. They explored Sky’s Hyrule leisurely, with Zelda as their guide. Sky’s Zelda was radiant and her love for Sky had been apparent from the beginning. It was nice to tour the world and just get to experience it instead of fight their way through.

Hyrule was infinitely happy for this change, ironically he was happy to take the backseat in this adventure. For months he’d been trapped and watched as Callous had pretended to be him, used his pain for enjoyment, and locked him out of reality. But now he had his body back well and truly. Callous’s snide voice, the anger that grew so strong it overtook his senses, banished with the dark. 

Although just exploring the world was a balm on his soul. He’d always loved the feeling of exploring and finding, even when there was no directive. It was a welcome change from being literally hunted for his blood as he had been before. Thinking of that time was bad enough, it was during that adventure that he had first encountered and fought Callous. And Hyrule really thought he had won, but obviously he hadn't since Callous was still around to cause trouble now. 

That evening they were all sitting around in a sitting room in the new Hyrule Castle Zelda was having constructed, which was mostly finished and quite lavish despite this Zelda's simplistic philosophy. 

Hyrule himself was reading a book, one he'd borrowed from the castle library about the Loftwings, they'd fascinated him since he'd met crimson, they did have any remotely similar in his Hyrule.

"Ravio?" Legend screeched. Hyruls head flung up to see two figures emerging out of a corner, Ravio and Curse. Curse looked awful, his rabbit skin care was gone and he was dressed simply. Dark black cures ringed his eyes and the darks cheeks were sunken slightly like he hadn't eaten in months.

Immidealty the heroes were up to meet them. They ushered the duo to a chair and sat them down Zelda ordering away a servant to get food and water for them.

"What happened?" Time asked.

"Where's Maverick?" Four said.

"Why do you look like shit?" Legend asked. 

"Give them space." Hyrule said, stepping back himself.

Curse shook his head. "I just got back, I spent almost three months in the dark world reforming my body after Maverick killed me."

That left them all in shock, Maverick had killed him? Or dusted, they all knew a dark couldn't be killed unless their mirror was destroyed. But Maverick had attacked Curse? No one was closer to the lights than him, it seemed impossible.

"How did it happen?" Four spoke up, his fallen heart was obvious to see.

Curse told them about the time he and Maverick had traveled the dark world together, about finding Callous’s castle and finally what Maverick had said before killing him.

"Wait wait repeat that." Four demanded. "He said that specifically?"

Curse nodded. "He said he was just joining the winning side."

Fours face went from quickly to surprise. "I know what he's doing, why would he do that it didn't work when we tried it, it's only going to put him in danger."

Four rambled off having a conversation with himself.

"Whatever Maverick did he must have had a reason." Legend insisted. "He wouldn't have done that for no reason. It must have been necessary, sorry Curse."

Curse just nodded. "In the time we spent together he never gave any inkling of turning traitor. But the dark world is a corrupting place, and you can't forget that a darks base nature is to destroy and hurt. We need to be prepared for the eventuality of having to face him in battle. And we have to deal with Callous's army, from what I saw he has enough resources to take over not just one of your hyrules but all of them."

Hyrules mind clicked into action, he didn't know much about armies but he knew Callous.

"Then we need an army of our own. With any luck and help from the few darks on our side we can amass our own army from each of our Hyrules…" Warriors began before pausing. "Except my Hyrule no longer has an army thanks to me."

Time rested a hand on Warriors shoulder. "That's not a good idea, we can't risk Hylian soldiers in this. If we can take out their leader, the minions will stand down."

"That's not always true." Hyrule said shifting his gaze from Curse to Time. "When I killed Ganon.."

"Don't you mean sealed away?" Time asked.

"No I ki…" Hyrule started again.

"Oh you imprisoned him?" Someone else chimed in.

"No." Hyruke said with force cutting off any other comments. "I killed him. An arrow to the heart, and took his piece of the triforce from his ashes." 

The other gave him astounded looks, had none of them really every killed their ganon? 

"I was washing ashes out of my hair for weeks it was terrible. But that's not the point. After I killed ganon his minions were determined to revive him, I was hunted so they could use my blood to resurrect him." Hyrule admitted, he'd never mentioned it before. He hated the way it tied him to that villian.

Curse shook his head. "The shadowlings that make up his army aren't smart enough to plan like that, whatever magic or method he's using to control them should wear off when he's dead."

"Then I know what we need to do." Warriors said, "we need to take the fight to him, draw him out and take him out. Call on our allies, us and darks on our side, Savage and Noble will fight with us, and so will Tempest. What about Acidic?"

Acidic cringed upon hearing his darks name. "If I ask he'll come, but he's unstable."

Nodding warriors continued. "Conqueror and Stygian won't fight with us, Conqueror hates Callous but he won't help us fight. And I'm not sure about Stygian."

"He won't help us or Callous." Sky confirmed. "He quite literally doesn't care." 

Nodding Twilight joined in. "That makes sixteen of us against Callous and his army."

"Seventeen." Four insisted causing them all to turn back. "I'm not giving up on Maverick."

Hyrule looked back and forth at Four and Legend, both of them obviously had more to their statements about their darks but that would have to wait for now.

"What if we aren't enough?" He asked. "What if Callous manages to kill us all? He gets to have all of Hyrule. We need another plan than just facing him head on."

Twilight shook his head. "There is no other way, someone like him won't stop until he's killed. It's him or us. And I doubt even he will be able to take on all seventeen of us."

Wild nodded as well. "Everyone of us can take out armies alone, together we're stronger and with all of our strengths together we can beat him, but only if we take him out before he can launch whatever plan he has."

He knew Callous would never stop, the dark’s motives were as purely evil as they could be, nothing would stop him from simply coming back later. He'd already survived Hyrule killing him once who's to say he couldn't again. But maybe there was something Hyrule could do to give them a better edge, but no that was too risky.

Time began to converse with Curse, they had to decide the logistics of gathering their fighting force together. Hyrule turned away from that and looked back at Legend, his predecessor had seemed off all day and the way he'd talked about Acidic earlier told Hyrule something more had happened.

Hyrule caught Legends eye and nodded, the other hero followed him out of the room as the other absorbed into the planning.

"Are you ok?" Hyrule asked once they had walked into one of the empty nearby parlors. Looking closer he saw Legend had once again acquired the dark circles he'd had while merged with Acidic.

"No Hyrule I'm not. I'm trying to process and I can't." Legend sat down but then got up and started pacing.

"It's something about Acidic, did he come back to talk to you?" Hyrule questioned.

"You could say that." Legend replied his gaze shifted resting on an opposite wall with blank eyes for a minute before he snapped back into reality. "What he said, what he wanted to do, it would have destroyed us, both of us. But that's the problem I can't even tell if I want it as well. It's my own fault this happened, Veran was my enemy. I created this problem when I didn’t defeat her. And now Acidic is suffering for it.”

Hyrule watched worriedly as his friend, the man who was supposed to his mentor wore a spot into the floor pacing back and forth muttering as he went. 

“Legend.” He called getting the other hero to look back up. “What did he want?”

“He wanted to merge again.”

  
  
  



End file.
